Mr. David Moloney:

Absolutely not. We need to be clear about the steps that our Department took over 20 months to see if any of the Departments that had a responsibility for these data wanted them. We asked that question over 20 months. We were aware that there were many people who used the database and we were aware that many people thought there was value in it, but when we looked to the people who had responsibility for the data and for identifying what the data needs were, none of them saw Benefacts as the answer. Perhaps it looks a little procedural to the Deputy, but from my point of view, I had a pilot scheme and it was not supposed to run indefinitely. As the Deputy rightly stated, almost €6 million had been spent on it. There needed to be someone with statutory responsibility who felt that this was value for money and was able to proceed with it, but there was none.